Of great importance with sustainable urban drainage is not only its construction but its ongoing maintenance and repair. It needs to be established by nearby property owners exactly who will be responsible for ongoing maintenance and repair and what the insurance situation is if properties are damaged if such maintenance and repair is not carried out in a timely manner.

Also be aware that if structures are not far from adjoining properties, it may be necessary for the landowner to enter into a party wall agreement at least 2 months before construction can be commenced.

The government guide to party walls (which are not necessarily adjoining walls, is here

27 What does the Act say if I want to excavate near neighbouring buildings?

If you plan to:

excavate, or excavate for and construct foundations for a new building or structure, within 3 metres of any part of a neighbouring owner’s building or structure, where any part of that work will go deeper than the neighbour’s foundations (see diagram 6); or

excavate, or excavate for and construct foundations for a new building or structure, within 6 metres of any part of a neighbouring owner’s building or structure, where any part of that work will meet a line drawn downwards at 45° in the direction of the excavation from the bottom of the neighbour’s foundations (see diagram 7)

you must inform the Adjoining Owner or owners by serving a notice – see paragraphs 7 and 8.

For those of technical bent, there are many examples of BRE Digest 365 available on the internet, of which 3 random ones are shown below, each presenting it in slightly different ways. I believe that BRE Digests are available to order from local libraries if further study is needed:

The Development Management Committee issued a caveat when approving the Clinton Devon planning application:

condition 9 being amended to read ‘Prior to the commencement of development a detailed scheme for dealing with surface water from the site shall be submitted for approval. The scheme shall take the form of a SUDS scheme that shall be designed to mimic greenfield run-off levels as discussed in the submitted FRA and to a standard to deal with a 1 in 100 year storm event. Percolation tests to the standards detailed in BRE digest 365 shall be carried out and submitted for approval as part of the scheme. The scheme shall thereafter be carried out in accordance with the approved details prior to first occupation of any of the proposed dwellings.’

If I lived near that site I would ensure that this caveat is followed to the letter, as if surface water drainage on this site is not appropriate, heaven help those below the highest dwelling!

This is something EDDC constantly pushes: we must be a wonderful council because we have not put up council tax. This myth has been exploded in today’s Times where it reports that one in three councils makes more money from parking charges, planning charges and other domestic charges than from council tax.

The Audit Commission says that councils raised £10.2 BILLION by charging for rubbish, pest control, funerals and parking and such like. Woking raises 87% of its income from such charges. The report is here:

from which it can be seen from the maps provided (page 6) that EDDC is amongst those councils raising the most from domestic charging.

The chairman of the Local Government Association said …”the funding system for local government is bust … some councils are in danger of being unable to fund their statutory responsibilities”.

And against this background, EDDC continues to tell us that an HQ move will be “cost neutral” even though it is going to need a loan of nearly £5 million.

Might it be that these “hidden” charges will be the ones that will rise if/when a financial black hole appears in EDDC finances – where a deficit has already been predicted for the next financial year?